About

I am Colin Finkle and I am an industrial designer with a graphic speciality. This means that I have the ability and aptitude to do both the industrial design of a project as well as the graphic design. I am comfortable with designing in 3D space as well as 2D space.

I have a degree in industrial design as well as years of experience as a practicing industrial designer. My degree is a Bachelor of Industrial Design from Carleton University’s School of Industrial Design. Between 3rd and and 4th year of university, I worked for Red Leaf Retail Concepts Inc. There I was introduced to POP design and designing retail displays. I was also mentored in graphic design from Chris Potter, the owner and principle designer at Red Leaf. I finished my studies and graduated with distinction. I then joined FX Creative as their senior industrial designer, where I did all of the design of the permanent displays that were produced by FX. I also helped set the concept direction for temporary displays or corrugate displays.

Now I am the Studio Manager at Matrix Marketing Concepts Inc. I am honoured to lead such a wonderful and creative team, and work to serve my broader team, other Matrix MCI departments and our clients, with business solutions that exceed expectations.

There are a few things you need to know that I am:

Creative ProfessionalI am a creative professional. I take pride in being both creative and a professional. Some people think that creativity is some sort of random, sporadic, unpredictable phenomenon. Or they believe you are creative in your 20s, and loose it later in your career. I do not believe this. Creativity is simply an input – output process; to output creative work, I take in inspiring stimuli like graphic art, the latest car designs, or interesting electronics on a daily basis. I have learned that from my time with a group of creatives called the Accidental Creative. Taking in stimulus as creative fuel is just one of the daily disciplines I do to keep myself creatively healthy in the long term. I use David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” personal productivity system along with Microsoft Outlook’s “Task” functionality to keep track of all the commitments I will work through. This allows me to have a “mind like water” as David Allen would say. With all my obligations captured in Outlook and not floating through my mind allows me to completely focus on the task I am working on. This enhances creativity. It also allows me to prioritize tasks effectively, and moderate my workload to collaborate effectively by making commitments I know I can fulfill.

Internal EntrepreneurWhen I see a way to improve our service, something that could perform better or a new way to make money, I work with the company I am with to make that a reality. At my first office job working for the Canadian Cancer Society, I found a way to input the data for the Relay for Life events in 2 months and a week versus the typical 3 months. In my first Industrial Design job, I worked with Red Leaf Retail Concepts Inc to work on their branding and website. This was the beginning of the process that lead them to their current logo, colours and website. At FX Displays I had many entrepreneurial projects I took on, but the one I am most proud of is Eco FX. I assembled a committee of environmentally conscious colleagues and called the group and the movement Eco FX. We one by one worked through processes that were having a negative effect on the environment. I focused them on issues with the office portion of the business, because I knew if I could change the culture in the office, that people would naturally make greener decisions in production and dealing with suppliers. The greatest example of this was our drive to cut down paper use from printing. Through posters, sharing strategies, and culture change, we had the office cut the paper usage by 60% in 8 weeks. This resulted in an estimated $7000 of annual savings, but the real result was the trees and energy saved as a result. I am what Jason Calacanis calls a “samurai and not a rice picker.” Alot of companies ask their samurai to check their entrepreneurial swords at the door, but I cannot do this. If you are a company with ingrained dysfunctional systems that you do not want to change, than I am afraid I cant do business with you. But if you want to improve your company year over year, I want to help you.